Enforcing some Height/Weight standards probably wouldn't be a bad idea, either...
Posted on 09/13/2011 12:18:02 PM PDT by Immerito
Does SWAT Need to Be Explained?
Written by Ed Sanow
I get frustrated with the educational sessions at chief’s conferences on SWAT. The attendees are treated like kindergarten kids. “There are some vewy, vewy bad people out there. They won’t do what the nice police officers tell them. So, sometimes, those nice police officers need help from ‘special’ police officers.”
You got to be kidding me! Some 90% of agencies serving populations of more than 50,000 people, and 70% of agencies serving smaller populations have some kind of SWAT team. Yet, SWAT has to be explained like it is something new to policing?
When someone has risen to the rank of chief or sheriff, then SWAT has to be explained to them at a chief’s conference? Have we, as team leaders and team commanders, done that a bad job of explaining what SWAT is and does? As well as when a SWAT team could, or must, be used? Honestly? Yes.
When the local police beat reporter knows more about SWAT than the chief or sheriff, you have a problem. Combine that lack of operational knowledge with the slightest mistake during a SWAT operation and now you have a huge crisis as well as a disbanded tactical team.
SWAT teams, even the better ones, are going to make operations errors. The key, then, is getting everyone up the chain of command familiar with SWAT operations. That especially includes the PIO, who gets to talk to that crime reporter.
Team commanders must raise the profile of their teams. Stay active. Yes, I mean do warrant service and drug raids even if you have to poach the work. First, your team needs the training time under true callout conditions. If all your team does is train, but seldom deploy, you will end up training just to train. You need to train to fight. You already know that.
Second, make SWAT familiar to senior police staff. Everyone fears the unknown. Don’t let SWAT be that unknown. Make deploying SWAT something that is routine, not something only done after much hand-wringing. “Oh, no! You mean we have to call SWAT? Oh, I don’t know, I just don’t know. Really? Call SWAT? Really?”
Yes, you should have clear guidelines for activating the team. But how many times has the callout of a part-time team been delayed or denied when those callout criteria were met? We really do need to explain that SWAT is less of a threat than the people in the calls we are responding to—you know, those vewy, vewy bad people.
Part of the chief’s or sheriff’s fear of the unknown with SWAT is they truly may not know the capabilities—and the limitations—of their particular team. Sometimes we act as if we can do anything and everything. The chief might suspect differently.
In the immortal words of Inspector Harry Callahan, “A man’s got to know his limitations.” So must your SWAT team. Man-up now and draw the line. We can do barricaded gunman, but we can’t do hostage rescue. We can do bus assault, but we can’t rappel. We can do chemical agents, but we can’t do explosive entry. Whatever it may be, know what you can and can’t do.
Do only what you are excellent at doing. Don’t do what you have done once or twice in practice, fully-rested, fully-hydrated, in the middle of a nice sunny day with your full team on-hand. Know the difference. Know what you can do and then find a way to prove it to the administration.
So, do you request a meeting with senior staff and have a “show and tell” with all your cool gear? Perhaps have a few of them stop by the range on training day? The very best way to prove the capabilities of your team is to conduct an all-discipline, mock exercise. It needs to be realistic and relevant: active shooter, barricaded gunman—something that makes sense. Remember the goal is to convince the chief of your team’s capabilities. Inspire the chief’s confidence in the team. Educate the chief.
You don’t need to include Fire/EMS for the first few of these, but they eventually need to be included. However, you do need to include the entire chain of police command: dispatch, patrol, SWAT, negotiators, supervisors, the chief. Perhaps just a table-top exercise for the upper management, but they need to be somehow involved because that is the point. Also, the chief needs to be there during the after-action debrief.
You need to educate your chief. Don’t let the local press do it. Don’t force the chief to attend a class at a conference on it. You do it.
Question: If military tactics are needed, why not call the militia/national guard?
I entirely distrust these SWAT units as they blur the line between civil and military powers in such a way that they may embody something that would terrify our founding fathers: standing armies, but with near complete and utter immunity from civil, criminal, or military law.
Start by a) abolishing their unions; b) making their pay and pension on par with the military; and c) putting them under the military justice system.
We have been given, in writing, a gift. The gift of the true goals of the Agents of the State: to increase SWAT activity, justified or no.
Now, we’ll know why the cop “felt threatened” by a lab or shot the homeowner in a wrong house raid-—he was just getting in more practice, comrade. You can’t blame him for just following orders, citizen.
< /sarc>
C would only work if the military justice system were serious about upholding the Constitution (and military law).
See this: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-vetscor/2638933/posts
Enforcing some Height/Weight standards probably wouldn't be a bad idea, either...
What military tactics? I agree there is abuse of SWAT teams by stupid and headline grabbing Chiefs trying to keep the government cash by having the teams and calling them out nilly-willy.
SWAT teams ,if used properly, are very good tools to have when confronting hardened criminals. Regular street cops dont have the tools to handle the case I described in my post.
Yes. Why do we need 90% of these would-be heroes?
Don’t let SWAT be that unknown. Make deploying SWAT something that is routine,...
No, really, don't.
I thought poaching was a crime. Good thing most State Fish & Wildlife Departments have their own SWAT teams, too!
or as Radley Balko put it “Practice on the People” ...
for what? what’s the game plan.
SWAT teams, even the better ones, are going to make operations errors.
It looks like SWATS are getting SWATted by citizens and ole Ed is doing some urgent salvage work. He’s one of these homeland security educational experts who teaches local police officers to act as an invading army, occupying enemy territory, and surrounded by terrorists.
In most other professions, the bad apples are found out and removed.
Government employees, including police, are often protected and shielded from the natural consequences of their actions. Which is why the bad apples not only largely remain, but increase in number, as other cops see less of a reason to follow Robert Peel’s principles.
What we need are fewer law enforcement officers who say “Yeah, they exist, but——” and more peace officers who say, “what this man/these men did was unPeelian and morally wrong, and I refuse to support them.”
Yep, people that have a bench warrent out for them for traffic tickets. Such a horror!
Don't forget to go to the wrong house and shoot the family pets.
Enough with the SWAT nonsence. I am sure it seemed like a good idea but really when they are having to go along to serve warrents, which used to be served by a cop who knocked on your door rather then breaking it down, just to have something to do there is no need for them.
There's a difference between a "real" SWAT team and a pseudo-SWAT team that's been given lots of cool toys and a bad-a&& attitude, but doesn't have the training or mindset to deal with actual opposition. Pseudo-SWAT teams serve no purpose except to terrorize the citizenry, since their sloppy tactics would get them killed if they actually confronted real dangerous criminals. Personally, I wish the pseudo-SWAT teams would confront dangerous criminals, so at least they then wouldn't be able to terrorize citizens, but unfortunately the pseudo-SWAT teams have too strong a sense of self-preservation.
Mr. Sanow is obviously an enemy of freedom, the Constitution, and the American people. He should be treated accordingly.
i don’t know if you are a cop, don’t really care because this isn’t addressed to you personally.
Because FR has the news from all the states I think that FReepers see too many instances of poor police training where it results in dead dogs, wounded or dead citizens and the only punishment the cop gets is three days paid vacation so that he can gather his thoughts before he writes a report about what actually happened.
What actually happens is that he gets to confer with his attorney and the city’s legal staff, the watch commander and senior officers about how to best limit the liabilities of the police department and the political officials. Then any evidence that cannot be explained or places the department in a bad light is destroyed, damaged or lost.
Now this isn’t the case in every instance. Once in a while the cop actually gets about one tenth the sentence that a civilian would for wounding or killing someone. He is generally given the chance to resign, so that it will be easier for him to get rehired in the adjoining county. Rarely is the officer fired or is his Law Enforcement Officer certification revoked or voluntarily surrendered. Being given a three week unpaid suspension is not what the average citizen considers as a just penalty for an unjust shooting.
I don’t know of anyone who would jump in to assist an officer making an arrest these days when five years ago almost all of my friends would have.
SWAT Teams that can’t locate the correct address are my favorite gripe. Highly trained in making unnecessary arrests and defending poor judgement yet cannot read a GPS or a map.
Now we need a helicopter, a military vehicle and 12 officers in black full-body armor and combat gear with full face ski masks & gloves from head to toe to bust someone for growing weed. When I was a kid two men in suits with one uniformed officer took care of those arrests.
Forty years ago civil servants were underpaid but had better benefits than the majority of workers. The pay has increased to the point where they are overpaid but none of the benefits were taken away. Cops making $200 grand (with benefits) a year are not uncommon.
Would you care to discuss the hazards of your job? Do they in anyway compare to the GI’s in Iraq or Afghanistan who would love to see 25K a year. Your medical is taken care of and it’s much better than the average GI’s. So, in my opinion you are well paid for the risks you take.
The Protect and Serve emblems on so many cars these days do not apply to the citizens.
Anyone who wishes, can pass this up the ranks to their Chief or their Sheriff. They’re the one who needs to read it and take action to correct the faults in their departments.
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